It's Man Week! Which really means that my wife is out of town. She flew home to Oklahoma to spend some time with the fam over the holidays, and I will meet up with her here in a few days. However, until that time I am excited about man week! I have some great things planned out for this week. Nazi Zombie night, poker night, and chicken wings!
Now some might think that sounds like some amazing manly activities! Others might those are not manly activities! You need to build something, seduce some girl, and beat someone up! I am not sure where we get our ideas on manly behavior, if I had to guess I would say culture, but then again culture has to develop from something. So I would actually have to go a little deeper and say it derives from our desires. For example, I believe that men desire respect (hence why Paul encourages wives to respect their husbands in Ephesians 5:33). Therefore, because men desire to be respected we work hard to be known and respected for our achievements, therefore we live in a culture that values work and individual success (not sure how this would look in another culture, just my observation).
Now lets take a look at Genesis. God created us in his image and note that this image is not gender specific, man is not the full image of God and neither is women. Humanity was created in the image of God. Which I take to believe that both men and women bear an image of God and some images are more prevalent in the different genders. Men= logical, problem solvers, providers etc. Women = nurturing, smart, creative, etc. (not an exhaustive list and many of these things can be flip flopped).
If we are God's image bearers, although a tainted image thanks to sin, we should strive to set the example of being Godly men. This is especially true when I look at ministry with youth. How am I bearing God's image of manhood to the junior high and high school boys that I interact with? I can easily feed into what they hear everyday, that they need to be athletic, suave , and hyper-sexual. I could joke with them that they need to build more muscle mass, or give them a hard time or encourage them about pursuing girls (which is not a bad thing). OR I could help them realize what the desires that God has placed in their lives, and how they can glorify him in everything from pursuing girls, playing sports, or created beautiful flower arrangements.
In summary, it's not the activities that we do that make us men, it's how we bear the image of Christ in the activities that we do as men. This man week is not about defining manhood and masculinity. It's really just a group of guys with common interests getting together and having fun with God at the center...especially why we blow the heads off of zombies!
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